Ministry

Filled with the Holy Spirit 

In chapel this week, we spent time thinking about the Holy Spirit and what happened on the day of Pentecost. 

In Acts 2, the followers of Jesus were gathered together when they heard a sound like a violent wind. What seemed like tongues of fire came to rest on them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This happened after Jesus had died, risen again, and ascended into heaven. His followers were waiting, and then God filled them with power to live differently. 

The Holy Spirit is not just something that happened in the past. The Holy Spirit is still active and available today. He guides, comforts, convicts, empowers, transforms, and counsels us. Most of all, the Holy Spirit helps us live more like Jesus. 

In chapel, I used the picture of a jar being filled. The jar represented our lives. So often, our lives can be filled with all kinds of things: other people’s opinions, anxiety, depression, trauma, friendship drama, gossip, or lies we have started to believe about ourselves. What we allow to fill our lives will often begin to consume our lives. 

But when we allow God to fill our lives, something begins to change. 

The Bible says, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19). 

That means God does not just want to be near us from a distance. He wants to live in us, shape us, and help us from the inside out. 

I know this personally. 

Even standing up and speaking in chapel is something I cannot do in my own strength. I am dyslexic, and words have not always come easily to me. But the Holy Spirit empowers me. When people ask how I have gone through difficult things and am still here, the answer is the Holy Spirit. When people ask how someone can learn to love, forgive, care, and keep going after hard things, the answer is God at work. 

The amazing thing is that God has always used ordinary people. Some of the people Jesus called were young, doubtful, hot-headed, overlooked, broken, sick, or struggling. 

Yet through the power of God, ordinary people did extraordinary things. 

That same Spirit is still at work today. 

Kookie Hean 

Ministry Youth Worker